NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OF:

BRAZIL

HARI SRINIVASROOM: I -312 / 079 -565-7406

International Environmental Policy

Brazil: Environmental Features

The environment of Brazil is characterized

by high biodiversity with a population density that decreases away from the

coast.Biodiversity: The number

and variety of organisms

found within a specified

geographic region

Environmental Issues in Brazil

As the home to approximately 13% of all known species, Brazil has one of the most diverse collections of flora and fauna on the planet.

Impacts from agriculture and industrialization in the country threaten this biodiversity.

Environmental issues in Brazil*

• deforestation in the Amazon Basin

• illegal wildlife trade• Urbanization and

industrialization• air and water pollution• land degradation and water

pollution caused by mining activities

• wetland degradation• severe oil spills

Environmental Issues in Brazil

Brazil's large area comprises different ecosystems, which together sustain some of the world's greatest biodiversity.

Because of the country's intense economic and demographic growth, Brazil's ability to protect its environmental habitats has increasingly come under threat

Ecosystem:a biological community of interacting organisms and

their physical environment

• Extensive legal and illegal logging destroys forests the size of a small country per year

Environmental Issues in Brazil

Brazil has the highest number of animals of any single country in the world

Brazil has the highest primate diversity the highest number of mammals the highest number of amphibians the second highest number of butterflies the third highest number of birds second highest number of reptiles

There is a high number of endangered species, many of them living in threatened habitats such as the Amazon Forest.

Global Environmental Agreements

As part of Brazil's environmental initiatives, it is party to the following international agreements: • Antarctic-Environmental Protocol• Antarctic-Marine Living Resources• Antarctic Seals• Antarctic Treaty• Biodiversity• Climate Change• Kyoto Protocol• Desertification• Endangered Species

• Environmental Modification

• Hazardous Wastes

• Law of the Sea• Marine Dumping• Ozone Layer

Protection• Ship Pollution• Tropical Timber• Wetlands• Whaling

BrazilianNational

Environmental Policy (1981)

Environmental policy and law

Brazil has one of the most complete environmental legislations in the world

Polluting emissions guidelines

Sustainable use of natural resource

Applying sustainable development

Guidelines for pollutions and emissions

Multi stakeholders: legal organizations, NGOs, citizens + governments

Environmental Policy of Brazil

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Environ-mental

Policy on specific issues

Social participatio

n Institutional reform

Biodiversity protection

Use of public lands Agriculture

development

Brazilian Environmental Policy (1981)

Brazil – National Environmental Policy

The NEP covers many environmental issues:

definition of standardslicensingenvironmental impact assessmentspecial areas for preservationincentives for cleaner productionenvironmental zoning… etc.

10 Principles of the NEP

1. Government action in maintaining the ecological balance, considering the environment as a public asset to be necessarily guaranteed and protected, in view of collective use

2. The rational use of soil, subsoil, water and air3. Planning and supervision of the use of environmental resources4. Protection of ecosystems, the preservation of representative areas 5. Control and zoning of polluting or potentially polluting activities6. Incentives to study and research technologies for the rational use

and protection of environmental resources7. Monitoring the state of environmental quality8. Restoration of degraded areas9. Protection of areas threatened with degradation10. Environmental education at all levels of education, including

community education, intended to enable them to participate actively in environmental protection

Brazil: Governmental organizations

Other authorities are also responsible for the implementation of environmental policies, including the National Council on the Environment the National Council of the Amazon the National Council of Water Resources the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity

Conservation (ICMBIO) Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable

Natural Resources (IBAMA) Board of Management of Public Forests, and others.

Brazil: Governmental organizations

The Ministry of Environment is responsible for Brazil's national environmental policy

The ministry's many departments deal with: climate change and environmental quality biodiversity and forests water resources sustainable urban and rural development environmental citizenship

Ministry of Environment

The Ministry of Environment (Ministério do Meio Ambiente; MMA) was established in 1992 to promote the adoption of principles and strategies for knowledge related to the environment, conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. 

• Department of Climate Change and Environmental Quality

• Secretary of Biodiversity and Forests

• Department of Water Resources and the Urban Environment

• Department of Extraction and Sustainable Rural Development

• Secretariat of Environmental Citizenship

• National Council of Environment (CONAMA)

• National Council of the Legal Amazon (CONAMAZ)

• National Council on Water Resources

• Advisory Board of the National Fund for the Environment

• Board of Genetic Heritage Management

• Commission Public Forest Management

• National Forestry Commission (Conaflor)

Organizations within MMA:

Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA)

BAMA is the Brazilian government's main tool for providing information with regards to environmental welfare and protection, and acts as the “environmental police"

It is responsible for implementing new policies and standards for environmental quality, evaluating environmental impacts, examining environmental degradation and for distributing environmental licenses.

It has the power to impose administrative fines, but when more serious environmental crimes are committed, it is responsible for informing federal authorities for further prosecution.

Brazil’s iggest environmental problem

DeforestationIndigenous groups

Urbanization

Agriculture policies

Industrial Developmen

t

Biofuel Productio

n

Global market

sClimate change

Deforestation in Brazil

Despite reductions in the rate of deforestation in the last ten years, the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40% by 2030 at the current rate.

Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forest (about half the land area of Japan!!)

According to the Living Planet Report 2010, deforestation is continuing at an alarming rate

A Closer Look at Brazilian Deforestation

Today deforestation in the Amazon is the result of several activities, the foremost of which include:

Clearing for cattle pasture Colonization and subsequent subsistence

agriculture Infrastructure improvements Commercial agriculture Logging

Deforestation in Brazil

Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and as of 2005 still has the largest area of forest that is removed annually.

Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (230,000 sq mi) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed.

In 2012, the Amazon was approximately 5.4 million square kilometers, which is only 87% of the Amazons original state.

Rainforests have decreased in size primarily due to deforestation.

Economic benefits of environmental conservation

Environmentalists have stated there is not only a biological incentive to protecting the rainforest, but an economic one as well:

… if intact forest is sustainably

harvested for fruits, latex, and timber

… if clear-cut for commercial timber

(not sustainably harvested)

… if used as cattle pasture.

$6820 $1000 $148

Response to Deforestation

Brazil has established an extensive network of protected areas which covers more than two million km2 (25% of Brazil's national territory) and is divided almost equally between protected natural areas and indigenous land

From 2002 to 2006, the protected land in the Amazon Rainforest has almost tripled, and deforestation rates have dropped up to 60%. About 1,000,000 km2, have been conserved, which adds up to 1,730,000 km2 - about 5 times the size of Japan!

Contact me …

Prof. Hari SrinivasRoom: I-312

Tel: 079-565-7406Email: hari.srinivas@kwansei.ac.jp

Class website:

http://www.gdrc.info/iep